Arpino, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy

Casa San Francesco: a spacious 130 sq.mt. apartment with its own stone-vaulted cellar and a communal roof terrace overlooking a small piazza in the historic centre of Arpino, a medieval hilltop town only 90 minutes from Rome.

The apartment requires redecoration and some modernisation together with the installation of the kitchen.

Casa San Francesco enjoys an absolutely central position, a moment's walk from restaurants, bars, cafés and shops.

The apartment is approached up a flight of charming old stone stairs leading to an imposing wooden door, with an arch and a lantern to illuminate the entrance. Two large main rooms, plus a smaller room which could be a third bedroom, study or the kitchen, overlook the piazza, and open onto a balcony running the length of the apartment.

Two bedrooms are tucked quietly in the centre of the building away from any street noise. There is a bathroom with modern fittings.

There is a large storage/laundry room with a separate entrance across the hallway from the front door of the apartment.

The apartment also owns a separate stone-vaulted 'cantina', with its own separate street entrance. Suitable for the traditional use of storing wine at a constant temperature deep under the stone, it also forms an additional useful storage area.

At the top of the building, there is an attractive communal roof terrace, with beautiful sweeping views.

There is nearby free public parking and public transport. Both the centre of Rome and Rome's main international airport, Fiumicino, are only a 90 minute drive. Rome's second airport, Ciampino, is less than an hour away.

Energy classification: G


ARPINO AND THE CIOCIARIA

Arpino, the birthplace of the Roman orator Cicero, is one of the major medieval hilltop towns in the area of Italy called the Ciociaria, the name given to the fertile land that lies south of Rome but north of Naples, situated inland in the hills in the heart of Italy.

The Ciociaria region is within easy reach of both Rome and Naples and their respective airports. A day's shopping in Rome is a common pastime, while an even shorter drive brings you to the charming beaches south of Rome. Alternatively, drive east, and the mountains of the Abruzzo National Park await with horse trekking in the magnificent beech forests, and sparkling mountain lakes and rivers where you can swim in the heat of the summer. And at the other extreme of temperature, although Arpino itself is temperate, less than an hour's drive brings you to the winter ski slopes.

Often overlooked, both by tourists and by those foreigners in search of an Italian home, in favour of the more publicized regions of Tuscany and Umbria, the Ciociaria remains largely an unspoilt gem with beautiful scenery and medieval hilltop towns. A home or second home in the Ciociaria, in the hilltop towns of Arpino, Veroli, Alatri or in the rolling countryside that surrounds them, will afford you a setting where over two thousand years of history combine with an idyllic rural Italian lifestyle, where you can still discover the 'real' Italy and take time out from the busy crowds of the larger tourist cities, while being less than ninety minutes journey from central Rome or either of Rome's two airports.


VIA ROMANA Srls and the CINELLI IMMOBILIARE AGENCY

Via Romana Srls is an Italian-incorporated company owned by a British/Australian Chartered Accountant and her photographer daughter, and offers a package of services to facilitate all aspects of the purchase and restoration of Italian property by overseas clients. The Via Romana team works in collaboration with various fully-licensed Italian real estate agencies including the Cinelli Immobiliare Agency. The Cinelli Immobiliare Agency aims at identifying unique buildings with outstanding locations in the beautiful Ciociaria region, including apartments, historic houses, villas, palazzos and farmhouses. Some of these properties are already renovated while others are to be restored. The Cinelli Immobiliare Agency also provides reliable and full service renovations focussed on the appropriate use of original materials, such as stone, wood and wrought iron, drawing on over 40 years' experience in the restoration sector of their partner company Cinelli Claudio Restorations and their technical office, headed by Ing. Valentina Cinelli.